Size matters !

I was talking to a customer last week about the subtleties of volume and proportion when it comes to wedding bands. Quite often when it comes to mass-manufactured bands the makers are very conscious of the weight of the band in terms of the retail price point and the cost of the material. Therefore by common denominator, bands tend to be dictated by width and will be as thin or shallow as possible in the height off the finger, usually ranging between 1.3mm and 1.6mm deep. But I have even seen rings that I have repaired which have been 0.9mm to 1.1mm !
To go the opposite way, if you leave a small fraction of extra depth, it can have a considerable effect on the feel and heft of the ring. We really like to make our standard rings a minimum of between 1.6mm and 2.0mm deep. You would be surprised how little extra it takes to make an appreciable difference and also how short a time it takes wearing something for your hand to assimilate the weight and become accustomed to it.

It reminded me of a wedding band I made last year. This was really simple, but very effective, and a really gorgeous feel. It is 3mm deep and has a very pronounced curve on the inside and is a real statement of simplicity. As soon as you pick it up you know that it is something special.

Our tip is never to scrimp on weight if you can manage it, especially with wedding bands. After wearing it every day for 20, 30 or 40 years, you won't regret it.

Embrace no:2 part 2

just got a sumptuous new photo taken by Trevor Harte of Embrace 2, which we previously wrote about here.
It was part of a shoot for our listing in a new site dedicated to designers and craftspeople in the capital; DesignerDublin.ie

There is going to be lots of events happening over the coming months as part of the Year of Craft 2011.
The World Crafts Council AGM will be in Dublin Castle in the first week of June.
One interesting talk that I'll be definitely going to will be "Lunch With The Masters".
Paul Costelloe, Peter O'Brien & Deirdre McQuillan will give a talk on June 10th at 51 St Stephens Green from 12.30 to 2pm. You can book a place here while they are still available.

more pink sapphires

There is something I really like about pink sapphires,

Embrace 4

Another set from the Embrace series.
This one was built around the starting point of a very large and beautiful Topaz. It is a very stunning cut; a flat top with a broad girdle and concave facets underneath. It was a very deep stone so was going to sit quite high in a ring. We really wanted to respect the minimalism and cleanliness of the stone and didn't want to detract from the gems impact/impression. At the same time we wanted to play with the idea of the extra ring providing a wrap-around or colour accent to change the emphasis when worn together.

The main ring is in white gold to compliment the clear Topaz, and is very geometric and crisply defined.
The second ring is in yellow gold with a channel of Pink Sapphires to add a contrast of warmth and softness.
The height of the Topaz actually ended up being a good thing as it allowed the yellow and pink line to climb and wrap around the setting without over powering the main focus or detracting from the centre of the composition. It really works in the flesh as it is being worn, so from different angles you get different glimpses of colour peeking out past the shards of white light.

And it is always nice to play with the idea of a ring from one side of the finger crossing over to the other side. An artist friend of ours has used a principle of off-setting printed colours in his work so you get a slipped line of colour along the outline of a shape. I am always reminded of that effect when I see these rings put together.

Little Back Ring 3

This is another of the series "Little Black Ring".
It has a large Hematite, again facetted, along with a border of 1-pointer white diamonds, and a border of 1-pointer black diamonds. It is in 18karat white gold, which we have left un-plated.

I love framing the negative space around the culet of a gemstone, even if most of the time you don't get to see it.

Rather than coating with a Rhodium finish like most of manufactured jewellery, we have left the ring with the natural colour of the white gold. This is something that we do a lot and something that I may post about in greater depth at some point in the future. There is a warmth to the colour tone of 18karat white gold which can compliment a lot of jewellery and gemstones instead of artificially masking it to look brighter, and then having it erode and wear off.
This is a good example, I really think that the white gold compliments the subtle warmth of tone in the Hematite, which has a very slight metallic green hue to the "black".

How little is just enough ?

As the antithesis of the previous post, how much can a design or shape be reduced so as to perform it's function, and still be refined, or elegant, or have integrity as a design?
We asked ourselves how much could a diamond ring be reduced to a pure form? How many steps in designing and making a ring were adding degrees of complication that could be removed?

So working from a plate of metal, why would/(should) we need to build any additional structure when it is possible to set the diamond directly into the plate?
This sets the diamond sitting at a 90degree angle, facing out (or in if you want to look at it yourself). Interestingly, it actually works quite well, the diamond is really no less visible than in a classic position.
We considered bending the plate so that the stone would appear upright or in its "correct" position, but this was nicer and cleaner I think. The other direction is a ring that is still there to be made.
Another thought was to shape the outline of the plate to be an egg shape and to flow from the base of the finger to the top of a centered diamond, like an orbital outline. Again that is another ring for the future, here we decided in the end to play with the purity of the plate and the assymetric offset of the stone to sit neatly in the corner.
In the end the only concession that we made to the structure was to place a round bar at the rear of the aperture for the diamond, this guards the culet (point of the diamond at the base) from getting damaged, and also happens to nicely frame the culet and draws attention to the negative space around it. Where it is possible and appropriate to do this, it makes a beautiful detail.
I think it is always a sign that someone cared about the making of a piece of jewellery when they frame another aspect of the gem.

On the reverse of the plate we decided to matte finish to highlight the polished edges and bright front.

This gives it a subtle orientation and helps guide the viewer as to how to read the piece, and which is the intended back and front. The back at the base also was the natural place to hallmark as a visible detail.

Embrace no:3

Another ring from our Embrace series,
It was a breath of fresh air to cut loose and make something extravagant.
We thought we would have found the limit of how high a ring would be to be unwearable, a curious goal to pursue in itself, but were again delighted to find the enthusiasm and reaction of people when they put it on their hand.

A ring for a diva.

Little Black Ring

It has been a busy few weeks, thankfully, getting everyones pieces ready for christmas.

The finish line is in sight now, and the little elves are falling asleep on their feet and looking forward to Santa Claus.

Thought we would post something small and simple to keep the blog ticking over, and perhaps the nicest small and succinct idea from our archives is the "Little Black Ring".

We wanted to have a series that we could add to that would be an antithesis to the bright sparkle of most regular jewellery, but not sacrifice the idea of glamour and style. And we arrived at the idea of something that would sit in a woman's wardrobe as a staple item and eternally be ready to step out in and look a million dollars. Just like the little black dress, no woman's armoury is complete without a Little Black Ring !

We chose for LBR-1 a large Hematite with a beautiful dark metallic grey/green gemstone. 

The beauty of this stone is that though it is opaque, it is still cut in the fashion of a Round Brilliant, so you get the beauty of the symmetry and the faceting that your eye isn't usually drawn to. To our mind this is one of the most interesting gem stones we have seen. Given the interesting visual of the cutting, we couldn't resist opening up some of the underneath to highlight more of the stone.

And of course framing the dark circle with a border of small 1-point diamonds lifts the whole thing.

We have made I think 4 versions of Little Black Rings to date.

They are available to commission from our studio and also through DesignYard's fine jewellery gallery in Dublin's city centre.

Embrace no:2

One of the things we have always been wondering about in designing rings is the point at which you draw the line between showing off the purity of the gemstone, having a clean contemporary shape, and adding embellishment or ornament to a piece to add character or atmosphere.

The Embrace series gives us an opportunity to explore these ideas and return to common themes in very different pieces of jewellery. We like the way that they can look quite different from each other, but over time really form a body of work, pushing ideas of what works and what is possible.

Some of these have been commissioned by our customers while others have begun purely as an exercise on our part and then found their owners afterwards. One thing they have in common is that they are usually a little more extravagant than the more regular commissions that we receive from people.

Over the last 10 years we have made quite a few sets in this series and we will post the others as time goes by.

With this set we wanted to have a centre stone that stood on its own and could be worn separately. The setting for this is very minimal and we really wanted the metal work to disappear and take a back seat to the gem itself. The idea then was that you would have other elements that could be worn in combination to further enhance, embellish or dress the ring up for how flamboyant you wanted to be on any particular occasion.

The centre ring has a concave cut Citrine set in 18kt yellow gold. The concave faceting is really sumptuous and turns what would have been quite an ordinary stone into something really impressive, the way that it throws back so much light and colour.

The first piece we decided on was a collar to surround some of the space around the gemstone. Starting with the idea of a collar literally we were looking for something iconic that jumped out at us straightaway, it could have been Elvis in a Vegas jumpsuit, or an Elizabethan ruff, but once we considered Ming The Merciless from Flash Gordon there was no escaping it. We made this in 18kt white gold and set it with diamonds to contrast against the minimal colour of the centre piece.

The next stage was we wanted to have an alternative to the Ming collar, something that would be both more decorative and provide an overall more subdued piece. For this we looked at indian woodblock patterns from fabric printing. We remembered seeing some very interesting wood blocks in the Chester Beatty museum here in Dublin and this kicked off the design for this ring.
We like the way that it is quite detailed, but tucks in very neatly around the gemstone and peeps out, breaking the outline of the piece as you wear it.

And finally we wanted to make something that could be worn with either combination. We wanted it to provide an accent that would set the rest of the piece off, both in shape and colour. At first we weren't entirely sure what this might be. eventually we arrived at the thought, what if it was a line of colour, what if it actually raised and formed an arc across the whole thing as it sits on your hand.
So we cam to the line of Rubies set in 18kt yellow gold.

I have watched from afar at events where I have been at where this piece has been worn by it's now owner, and it is interesting to see the reaction that it gets. I have seen it journey around a room as each person took their turn to try it on, each person going through the same process of discovering and deciphering how the rings fit together, and then trying each combination to decide on their favourite, before passing it on to the next person beside them.
When we made this first we genuinely wondered if we had made it too high to be feasibly wearable. We have been pleasantly surprised by peoples willingness to go with it so enthusiastically.
90% of the pieces we make are practical and wearable as everyday jewellery, so it is nice every now and again to stretch out with a piece like this. As you will see in a future post, we pushed this further with subsequent rings. We have still to find the point at which people are unwilling to wear something fantastic.
Most of this formed itself on paper and sketches before we got anywhere near actually forming the metal itself. In future posts we'll try to scan or include bits of the background material to show you bits of the inspiration behind the work, or how it may have changed and developed from drawing to finished piece.

So there you go. Post number 1. If there is anything you want to ask or add please feel free to post comments or email questions. We are always happy to receive feedback and answer questions.